Activities for Teaching Coping Skills to Youth

Teenagers need to utilize coping skills when struggling with anger, stress and/or addiction. Adolescents facing a lot of small stressful events at once struggle more than a teenager dealing with one major event, according to Focus Adolescent Services. Teenagers may face stress due to peer, family or school problems. Teaching coping skills to youths helps adolescents deal with the day-to-day stressors in their lives.

Make a List

• Have the teenagers write a list of areas of life that they try to control. Next to each item on the list, they should write whether they can control that item or cannot control it. Then have them make a whole new list of just the items that they cannot control. Have them crumple the piece of paper and throw it in the trash can. This shows the teenagers that they must let go of the areas that they cannot control.

Counting

• According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration, teaching an adolescent to count to ten helps manage stress. If an adolescent is feeling angry, teach him to count to ten while taking a deep breath. This allows the teen to think about the problem before getting too stressed or angry.

Collage

• Encouraging an adolescent to make a collage describing stressful events will provide a positive coping skill. The adolescent should cut pictures out of a magazine that reflect the areas causing stress in her life. Under each picture, the teenager must write what stressful event the picture describes. Discuss with the adolescent how completing a hands-on project helped her relieve stress.

Team Sports

• Team sports help adolescents learn that they can lean on one another to help with problems. A team sport such as basketball will provide the adolescents an outlet for their stress. At the end of the sport, discuss how each member worked together while playing. Then discuss how each member of the team can utilize peers to help in stressful situations.

Restful Place

• This coping skill encourages the adolescents to practice rest. Turn on music in the background. Tell the teenagers to close their eyes and think of their favorite location. This will help the teens remove their minds from negative situations and focus on a restful place. Afterward, discuss with the teens how spending a few minutes each day in rest will focus their minds and eliminate stress.